McClatchy’s Warren Strobel writes: Foreign affairs: McCain, Obama view world in starkly different ways
Separated by a generation and by one’s legendary military experience, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama offer voters contrasting worldviews, suggesting that they’d pursue different foreign policies as president.
That is of course nonsense.
While Obama and McCain may differ in how to proceed with U.S. exceptionalism, both subscribe to it and the general course of both would deviate only a few degrees left or right from the general line.
Writes Strobel:
Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, promise a return to a traditional Democratic foreign policy that some call liberal internationalism. They favor intervention to stop ethnic slaughter, strengthening global rules against the spread of dangerous weapons and working through international organizations when possible.
McCain, who insists that he’s not a clone of President Bush, indicates that he’d pursue a more robust application of U.S. power. He favors aggressive efforts to spread democracy overseas, espouses a hostile view of Russia and seems more inclined to use force and act unilaterally to deal with threats to the country.
How is "intervention" to stop alleged ethnic slaughter not a "robust" application of U.S. power? How does "working through international organizations when possible" differ from being inclined to act unilaterally?
For the victims, the marketing arguments that enables an U.S. president to send bombs down their houses make no difference.
The LA Times sees it more realistic: Obama, McCain aren’t worlds apart on foreign policy
John McCain and Barack Obama have been quietly recalibrating their messages on foreign policy in ways that often have moved them closer to the political center — and to each other.
The Economists comes to the same conclusion:
On a surprising range of foreign-policy issues, the rivals have morphed into each other.
Both candidates are essentially on the same page on every foreign policy issue that is relevant.
Only if one starts from a very narrow view of possible foreign policy differences one can conclude that these candidates differ. But the world is wide and to talk and then bomb Iran is not the only alternative to bombing Iran outright.